Eamon O’Doherty

Drawings and maquettes for sculpture and other small works from 1960 to present

18 – 31 August 2011

Reception Thursday 18 August between 6 – 8 pm

The artist’s intention in this exhibition was to put together the process work involved in the making of some of his larger public sculptures. This includes the conceptual, presentation and working drawings and the models and bronze maquettes which can often reveal more about the thought and creative process than the finished work itself.

Also included are drawings and prints from the artist’s studio, unconnected to his public art practice but which relate to the general Irish art scene of the last 50 years and include drawings from Dublin, London, Copenhagen and Paris in the 60’s and 70’s, as well as prints from the artist’s fifteen year association with the Graphic Studio from 1967 to 1982.

Eamonn O’Doherty was born in 1939 and grew up in Derry where he attended St Columb’s College. He graduated in architecture from University College Dublin in 1965 and was Visiting Scholar at the Graduate School of Design in Harvard, 1973 – 74.

He is best known for his large-scale public sculptures, more than thirty of which stand in Ireland, the U.K., Europe and U.S.A., among them landmark works such as the Tree of Gold at the Central Bank and the Great Hunger Memorial in Westchester, New York. His “Anna Livia” sculpture and fountain in Dublin’s O’Connell Street was demolished by the City Council in 2002 but the bronze figure was re-instated near Heuston Station in 2011. In 2006 he won the prestigious Selvaag/Peer Gynt international sculpture competition and teh resultant four metre high bronze is now in Oslo. His most recent sculpture is the twenty foot high bronze “Protogonos” at St James’s Hospital, Dublin, which was unveiled by President McAleese in April 2010.O’Doherty is also a painter, printmaker and photographer and has won awards for painting twice at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art, at the Claremorris Open, the Arnott’s National Portrait Competition, and twice for sculpture at te R.H.A.

His photograps in the collection of the Irish Traditional Music Archive have been exhibited at the Fowler Museum of Cultural History at U.C.L.A., the University of Virginia, Glucksman House at New York University, and elsewhere.

He engaged in printmaking at the Graphic Studio Dublin where he was a member for fifteen years, and also at the Carpenter Centre in Harvard.

We would like to thank Aoife Goodman and Mick O’Dea for all their help and support.

*Eamonn O’Doherty passed away on the 4th of August, 2011, may he rest in peace.